빛 is a native Korean word (고유어) attested from Old Korean. It is unrelated to any Chinese root and belongs to the core Sino-free vocabulary layer that children acquire earliest. The same root appears in compounds such as 햇빛 (sunlight, lit. "sun-light") and 눈빛 (the look in someone's eyes, lit. "eye-light").

In Korean literature and song, 빛 is frequently used metaphorically to mean hope or a guiding presence — much as English uses "light at the end of the tunnel." The famous independence-movement song "빛이 되리라" ("I will become the light") is a well-known example. Learners of Japanese should note that 빛 (bit) can look similar to the Japanese word ビット (bitto, "bit" as in digital data) but has no connection to it.